[Microbiologic characteristics of postpartum lactation mastitis].

In the bacteriological survey of 410 patients with purulent mastitis Staphylococcus aureus was found to be the main etiological factor of the disease. In most cases the strains of phage group I, phage type 80 were isolated. In unilateral mastitis during the acute period staphylococci were isolated from the the milk samples taken from the affected mammary gland in 77.4% of cases, and from the milk samples from the healthy mammary gland in 62.3% of cases. The strains isolated from the milk of both mammary glands and the surgical wound were identical. By the time of clinical convalescence staphylococci could be isolated from the milk of the affected and healthy mammary gland in 21.8% and 10.1% of cases, respectively, and from the surgical wound in 31.5% of cases.